Weaving, spinning and general happy fibrery goodness from the Far North of Scotland

Monthly Archives: January 2018

We had a yarn room tidy up this week, Mr Weaving Heart came across some shelving that works really well for storage of said yarn so it motivated me to sort everything out. Our back room now looks fabulous and is my favourite room in the house because it’s so bright and cheerful with everything within reach.

This makes me a very happy yarner!

You might spot the edge of a Sophie’s Garden at the bottom, this is my new stool made from a kit I was given for Christmas; this is also something I love. It’s a kit you can buy from Wool Warehouse and was a very simple make, the instructions are online via Look at What I Made and they include photos, tutorials and everything you might need if you’re a crochet novice.

Isn’t it cute? I’ve had another kit finish too, again a kit from Wool Warehouse, this time an Attic24 one for a jolly chunky bag; I had visions of me using it at the Edinburgh Yarn Fest to fill with lovelies but I think it’s a little too easily dipped – not that there will be lots of pick pockets there but you can never be too careful…

All this colour really helps my mental health, I can get low, especially at this time of year, and being surrounded by yarn and brightness is super soothing.

Ok, so finally, I have my new crochet square blocker to show off; another make by Mr Weaving Heart, it’s just right for blocking all the squares I discovered hiding behind the sofa when we did the sort out. Now I have to get over my complete resistance to attaching them all together. I hate this bit, I love granny square blankets but the thought of either sewing or crocheting all those squares leave me cold. Even with the fantasy of how gorgeous it will look when complete, which usually works to force me though the toughest project, fails utterly in this situation.

It been a while…we went away for a couple of weeks over Christmas and I’m still recovering. The world down south is so fast, noisy and busy! Everything that used to appeal to me, like the shops and places to eat out now hold no such joy, I just find the choice stressful.

We didn’t visit England for those kind of things though, we visited family and it was lovely to catch up with some relatives we haven’t seen for quite a while. It’s good to be home and I’ve been enjoying the peace and quiet as well as our comfy bed.

At the beginning of 2017 I started a Beekeepers Quilt, made from lots of little hexipuffs, the plan was to make one a day for the whole year. I lasted until June when somehow my focus wavered and the project got hidden away in my pile of shame with all the other unfinished WIPs. So come 2018 and I unearthed the bag full of puffs and had a wee play with them. They’re so cute, I began to sew some together and it was lovely to remember where the yarn came from for each one.

So my plan is to gradually assemble the blanket – I have enough for a small one – then decide if I want to add some more or just leave it as a little one.

To be honest, I’m not sure where it will live once finished; usually blankets are thrown over the sofas here but we have two furry and often slightly muddy dogs who love to snuggle up in them. This blanket won’t be washable, well not easily anyway, plus some of the yarns aren’t that robust so it’s a bit of a quandary. I suspect this is one of the reasons I got a bit un-enamoured with it.

Right onto some other projects: This year I’m making a temperature rug; there’s no pattern as I’m just crocheting a row of single crochet every day in a colour corresponding with the daily temperature outside.

You can see that ‘cloud’ is missing, it’s currently attached to the blanket as it was a chilly 0 degrees today. I’m using good old Stylecraft Special, but Aran weight with a 4mm hook to make a slightly denser, thicker fabric that will hopefully be suitably rug-like.

I don’t think we’ll be seeing anything other than blues for a while yet.

Before I go, I’d like to briefly show you the cushion cover I’ve just finished. Last year I thought it would be fun to participate in a fibre Advent Calender, I found one by Siobhan Crafts so had an exciting little package to open every day. The fibre was gorgeous, it had a pink theme and was a mix of mini-batts, locks, rolags and pencil roving. I spun each day onto two bobbins and plied them last week.

The package for the 24th contained a very cute orifice hook with a little sheep on the end as well as some other goodies. It was very good value as a heap of work must have gone into the dyeing and fibre prep., I think I paid around £28 for what turned out to be well over 200g as well as some other bits and pieces. I’d really recommend next years if you’re a spinner.

Attic24 is currently running a CAL (crochet along) in a kind of feather and fans pattern and I thought it’d would be perfect for my yarn as the stripes would show off the different colours in my skein. I’m super pleased with my little cushion, I had just enough yarn and it goes super well with the bright colours in our back room.